Posts Tagged ‘Casket Girls’

This is just a quick note that my story “Flightless Rats,” of the vampiress Aimée’s difficulties with dating in Nineteenth Century New Orleans, is now available in FANTASIA DIVINITY MAGAZINE (see July 16, 7). This is a somewhat bare-bones version which can be read on their website here, with a more completely formatted version in both print and e-formats to be available in the near future. More to be reported here when it is known.

“Now in its 7th year, the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Arts Festival is one of the largest literary performance events in the Midwest, featuring storytelling, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, live radio theatre, and other unique collaborations,” the announcement tells us (see also, below, August 9 and 7). As in years past, I will have a slot too, billed as “horror fiction” from 3:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, September 3rd. The event itself, arts fair, music, local displays, and the Bloomington Writers Guild-sponsored “Poetry on Demand” booth and Spoken Word Stage, spans the Labor Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday September 2 and 3, arrayed along 4th Street in Bloomington, Indiana. Or more to the point for the Spoken Word Stage, just off 4th on Dunn Street.

Here is the schedule, as of today, noting again that I’ll be on Sunday with excerpts from my novel-in-stories, TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, from 3:30 to 4. And if you like it, I’ll be up again with an excerpt from a different section the following month, in a featured spot at the Writers Guild’s First Sunday Prose Reading, on which more later.

In other news, today brought proof sheets for “Flightless Rats” from FANTASIA DIVINITY (cf. July 7, et al.) which, with one correction noted, went back this afternoon. To be published in the September issue, “Flightless Rats” is the tale of New Orleanian “Casket Girl” Aimée a-prowl for a new husband, but how some prospects may not make the grade. It is a reprint, originally published in T. GENE DAVIS’S SPECULATIVE BLOG, January 12 2015, and has also appeared in the flash fiction anthology MOCHA’S DARK BREW: 10 TALES OF HORROR (Mocha Memoirs Press, 2016).

A lovely, not-too-hot Sunday afternoon brings two quick notes of the “The Writer’s Life” variety. The first was a contract from Madeline L. Stout of FANTASIA DIVINITY MAGAZINE for reprinting “Flightless Rats” (cf. July 7), starring New Orleanian Casket Girl Aimée on the prowl for a husband, signed and sent back. Then earlier this p.m. it was time for the annual Bloomington Writers Guild picnic and open reading (see July 24 2016, et al.), starring fried chicken and many sides, in which I read a cautionary poem not of Aimée but those of her kind, titled “Evening.” Also announced, beginning with the first Sunday next month and “First Sunday Prose Readings,” a new fall cycle of Writers Guild activities will have begun.

Received last night, from FANTASIA DIVINITY Editor Madeline L. Stout: I really enjoyed this story. I love the twist. For inclusion in this particular anthology however, it doesn’t really fit. . . . Although it doesn’t fit what we are looking for in the anthology, I would like to publish this in our September issue. Please let me know if that would be something you are interested in. And so, yes, I emailed back that I would be interested — the money’s not much, but the story, “Flightless Rats,” originally published in T. GENE DAVIS’S SPECULATIVE BLOG on January 12 2015 (see November 30, 26 2014) and starring New Orleanian vampiress Aimée (cf. April 17 2014, et al.), is a reprint and publication is publication, so why not? Details to be revealed as they become known.

So this is being written on a hotel computer in San Juan Puerto Rico where I arrived safely yesterday afternoon, checking into NASFiC and attending Opening Ceremonies that night. More details on the convention will probably wait (except maybe for snippets, like this) to come most likely after I’m back home. But one note — ah, those tropical weather patterns! — Opening Ceremonies plus a following “Ice Cream Social” over, who would get caught in a sudden, brief rainstorm? Me, that’s who, who am writing this at the end of a similar rain event Friday morning and must rush back to the convention hotel now.

Told you so (cf. May 7; also April 28, 21 2015, et al.), and now it’s up. A tale of les filles à les caissettes of New Orleans, in particular of the one named “Lo,” being interviewed by a reporter from the Times-Picayune. But let’s let Short Mystery Fiction moderator Kevin R. Tipple make the formal announcement.

Today, James Dorr shares his “paranormal detective story” archived at DAILY SCIENCE FICTION titled “Dead Lines.” James adds that the tale is also “. . . intended as a tip of the hat to Edgar Allan Poe as a father of the detective genre.” While at the site, James has another story, “Casket Girls” in the archives for your reading pleasure.

So what’s the occasion? May happens to be International Short Story Month and in celebration, the SMFS has been posting a story a day from society members throughout the month. To see for yourself, one need but press here. This takes you to the Society’s blog from which there’s not only the story du jour, but scrolling down (e.g, .mine will be one story below if you happen on this tomorrow, Friday May 12) you can read the stories of previous days all the way to May 1. So how’s that for a deal?

And one thing more, as Kevin points out, an additional link to “Casket Girls” invites you to go to the background tale of les filles’ arrival at the Big Easy in 1728, and the one named Aimée. And as a further bonus, when on the DAILY SF site if you type my last name in the search box on the right, you can find three additional stories by me, though not in the New Orleanian series.

May is International Short Story Month and, in celebration, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has put out the call for a story a day, if they can get ’em, from writer-members. These would be already published stories, to be sure, with the idea that links will be provided on the SMFS blog daily, and word came this morning: I’m up for Thursday. That is, this Thursday, May 11, with the story in question one actually published on DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, but nevertheless a mystery of sorts, a tale of les filles à les caissettes of New Orleanian fame and the one called Lo, titled “Dead Lines” (see April 28, 21 2015, et al.). Moreover, according to coordinator Kevin R. Tipple, “I took the liberty of adding your explanation of the tale to the blog posting so that folks who are clueless don’t send me emails asking what is up 🙂 ,” this regarding the story’s also referencing, in an oblique way, Edgar Allan Poe as a founder of the detective story — and also, if he includes it, a second link to the original story “Casket Girls.”

So you get two for one on Thursday (or even more — since the story will be in DAILY SF’s archives, type “Dorr” in the search box it will provide to find three additional short shorts by me). Or, if in a hurry to see what’s what on the mystery side, the SMFS blog with today’s story can be reached by pressing here.

In other news, a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon marked this month’s “First Sunday Prose Reading & Open Mic,” co-sponsored by the Bloomington Writers Guild and local bookstore Boxcar Books, with featured readers Amy L. Cornell (who we’ve met before, cf. May 1 2016) with a poem, a short story, and a sort of essay coming back to poetry; Abegunde (cf. March 27, 6 2016, et al.) with a selection of essays on “what lies beneath” her recent poetry MS about a visit to Juba, South Sudan (a portion of which was also a finalist for the 2017 COG Poetry Award); and Khashayar Tonekaboni (pen name Terry Pinaud, cf. February 7 2016) with a short story based, in part, on a French Canadian play. Then after the break, there were five open mike readers with me number three, with a story of sweet lesbian, non-casket girl, vampire love titled “A Cup Full of Tears,” originally published in MON COEUR MORT (Post Mortem Press, 2011).

This also marks the last “First Sunday” gathering for this spring, with the series to resume again in early autumn.

That title may be a little misleading. Okay, a lot? But it occurred to me that, as a horror writer, cults and people’s joining of cults is an area that might be worth exploring whether for story ideas, or defining characters within already written (or read) stories. Does DRACULA, for instance, with vampire-in-progress Mina psychically linked to the one who is “turning” her, actually describe a cult, with the ritual of driving a stake through the count’s heart representing an ultimate means of deprogramming? I think, myself, of my New Orleans-based “Casket Girls” (cf. August 4, March 6 this year; April 28 2015; April 17 2014; et al.) as having formed a polyamorous society of ladies with similar dining habits, but to what extent might that be cult-like too? Or, more generally thinking, how many horror tales might simply feature bands of non-supernatural zealots who, possibly, might stick together after some menace has been conquered — think torch-bearing mobs following a charismatic burgermeister to seek more Frankensteins’ castles to burn.

Then there are the real cults, as that of Charles Manson. Or in Waco Texas. But are all cults bad? Which all comes down to that, via the magic of today’s email, I ran across an interesting piece, “How Do People Become Indoctrinated Into Cults” by Derek Beres, on BIGTHINK.COM for which one may press here. Is the horror writing community in itself a cult (well, for this one no, because we all run in different directions — at least when we’re left alone — so we’re probably more like a hypothetical herd of cats. All after the mouse, yes, but. . . .)?

So, changing the subject, last night I and four others met in an old house on darkest 6th Street for a ritual of our own, a rehearsal for a reading performance of a play, to be presented on October 28 at local Bloomington pub The Back Door. Scenes from a grisly play in progress, “The Unfinished” by Donald Mabbott, will be read by Writers Guild members Shayne Laughter, Joan Hawkins, Tony Brewer, and James Dorr. Just in time for Halloween!, to quote the blurb for it. A horror-themed open mic will follow. For more on this one, one may press here.

Why is it that female cartoon villains get to be all of these things, to have all of these things? Why do they get to have hairstyles — no, Hairstyles, with a capital Hair — while their protagonist counterparts are drawn small and soft and childlike? Why does Ursula get to have a beauty mark and the most impeccably waterproof makeup a sea witch could hope for, while Ariel gets the same wide-eyed small-jawed face as every other white Disney princess? Why does Maleficent get a headpiece that defines menacing elegance and dark grandeur, while Aurora gets generic late-fifties bangs? Why does Shego get to mouth off to Drakken and read magazines by the pool and decide what is and isn’t her job, while Kim Possible has to leap into action regardless of whether she’s tired or sad or sick or, heaven forbid, too busy?

So asks Sarah Gailey on today’s TOR.COM with “In Defense of Villainesses.” Outside of cartoons, I could add my own Aimée and her fellow filles à les caissettes. And I especially like one observation Gailey makes, or at least sidles up to. That it may be the most perfect, innocent princesses who eventually grow up to be the Evil Queens.

February is Women in Horror Month, and we here at Mocha Memoirs Press love our ladies of horror!

In celebration of “Ghoul Power,” we hosted a Flash Fiction Contest.

This collection contains the bone-chilling stories from the top ten finalists.

So says the announcement from Mocha Memoirs Press for their Women in Horror Month Flash Fiction Contest chapbook (cf. June 21, 8, February 23, et al.), now titled MOCHA’S DARK BREW. At least for the present, the book can be bought on Createspace only for a mere $3.00 — but, buyer beware, a shipping cost of slightly more than that will be required too. Nevertheless, while most definitely a proverbial “thin volume,” what wonderful stuffers for Halloween stockings! Or handing out for tricks and treats? Or even for gifties for next February’s Women in Horror Month, maybe combined with Valentine’s day too.

For all that, my entry in this self-styled “micro-anthology” is a tale of the vampiress Aimée on a post-concert night in 19th century New Orleans, originally published in T. GENE DAVIS’S SPECULATIVE BLOG (see January 12 2015). Arrived in the city slightly more than a century before, from time to time she finds herself between husbands — but, as for anyone, dates sometimes go wrong. And now, in “Flightless Rats,” what happens next can be tasted again with nine other finalist stories, all fine bitter spoonfuls of horror delight in a truly dark brew, for information/ordering of which one may press here.

This came to me Monday afternoon via Robert Dunbar on Facebook’s LITERARY DARKNESS, an interesting, grotesque, and in its way beautiful piece by Josh Jones from OPENCULTURE.COM. Titled “Discover the First Horror & Fantasy Magazine, DER ORCHIDEENGARTEN, and Its Bizarre Artwork (1919-1921),” the article describes and offers examples from a German precursor to even America’s venerable WEIRD TALES (first issue March 1923), its title translated as THE GARDEN OF ORCHIDS. To quote the article’s third paragraph, “[t]he magazine featured work from its editors Karl Hans Strobl and Alfons von Czibulka, from better-known contemporaries like H.G. Wells and Karel Capek, and from forefathers like Dickens, Pushkin, Guy de Maupassant, Poe, Voltaire, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others. ‘Although two issues of Der Orchideengarten were devoted to detective stories,’ writes 50 Watts, ‘and one to erotic stories about cuckolds, it was a genuine fantasy magazine.’ And it was also a gallery of bizarre and unusual artwork.”

To see it all for oneself, why not press here (and also be sure to check out the links in the piece itself, including the “Related Content” down at the bottom)?

Yesterday also brought a missive from Alexandra Christian, to wit: “Here is the very limited edit on your flash story. I just wanted to make sure it was all good before it went out to the formatter.” And so the writing life continues, the very few changes checked out this morning with my reply just sent back. This is for the Mocha Memoirs Press chapbook that will include my New Orleanian “casket girls” tale of “Flightless Rats” (cf. June 8, et al.), as one of ten stories that placed in their last February’s Women in Horror Month flash fiction contest. More on this to be announced when it happens.

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Be on the watch for my newest book, TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, a novel-in-stories just released from Elder Signs Press in June 2017. I am an Indiana based short story writer and poet with three primarily prose collections, STRANGE MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE and DARKER LOVES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET published by Dark Regions Press and the Bram Stoker Award(R) nominated THE TEARS OF ISIS from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, and an illustrated all-poetry collection, VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE), from Sam’s Dot Publishing/ White Cat Publications. I also have a novelette, THE GARDEN (currently out of print) from Damnation Books; electronic chapbooks VANITAS and I’M DREAMING OF A . . . and novelette PEDS from Untreed Reads Publishing; POLUDNITSA in Chamberton Publishing’s “Chimera” short fantasy series; and more than five hundred individual appearances in magazines and anthologies in the US, Canada, Britain, France, Australia, Holland, and Brazil, ranging from ABORIGINAL SCIENCE FICTION and ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE to XENOPHILIA and THE YELLOW BAT REVIEW. In the past I have worked a number of jobs including technical writer, city editor on a regional magazine, full time non-fiction freelancer, and semi-professional musician, and now reside in southern Indiana with current cat, Triana, named for the goth-styled daughter of Dr. Orpheus in the VENTURE BROS. Cartoon Channel series. As a writer, I count as influences (among others) Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Allen Ginsberg, and Bertolt Brecht.